Various types of devices are in wide use in industry in order to cool a warm or hot material such as steam. For example, many industrial applications generate steam which is desirable to cool and condense before re-circulating back as water. Various apparatuses generally known as cooling towers or air cooled condensers have been used for this purpose. One category of these cooling towers are so-called dry cooling towers which contain some form of heat exchanger that is supported in the structure so that air is passed over the heat exchanger. In some examples known as air-cooled condensers, the steam is fed to so-called coil bundles or condenser panels, which can be for example panels having a number of parallel tubes in contact with the ambient air. As the steam passes through these coil panels, the steam gives off heat and eventually is condensed back into water which can be removed. The steam is desired to be cooled to a point where it will condense back into water, and can be removed from the condenser panels as water.
Some air-cooled condensers have been designed in a modular fashion, with the coil panels being oriented vertically on one or more perimeter outsides of the tower. Air is drawn into the tower by a central fan and this is drawn through the panels. In another arrangement, the coils are internal to the tower and are arranged in an A-shaped fashion so that steam enters a central header pipe that travels downward through the panels where it is condensed and removed by a header pipe at the bottom of each of the angled A-shaped panels.
In order to facilitate air travel through either arrangement of the tower, it has been known to provide fans, typically one large fan associated with each module in a modular system. In the perimeter type system, the fan is located above the vertical panels and thus is down stream of the panels, pulling the air through the panels in what is called induced draft. In the A-profile type arrangement, the fan deck is placed below the angled A-profile panels and pushes the air through the A-profile panels. Thus, the fan is upstream of the panels and pushes the air through the panels in what is described as a force draft.
The known designs have many desirable properties. However, it is always desirable to reduce the size cost and/or energy consumption of dry cooling towers.